Evil Weapon

""I was far more evil then you ever were."
- Stormbringer

Basic Information

A subtype of the Artifact of Doom, the evil weapon is a self-aware magical weapon, with an evil personality.

The type of weapon it is may be indicative of its personality and powers. See Weapon of Choice (and Good Weapon Evil Weapon) for ideas.

See Also

• Artifact Of Doom
• Black Magic
• Empathic Weapon
• I Call It Vera
• Soul Jar
• The Sword That Speaks

Sources

Bibliography

1. TV Tropes Wiki

Game and Story Use

• If your goal is to make the PCs paranoid and untrusting of the very world they live in, this can be a cursed item hidden amidst the treasure horde.
  • It's a little less artificial and contrived if you at least put it in the hands of a villain first.
    • Even better if that villain obviously suffers from the side effects or mind control of the weapon. Then it won't feel like you railroaded them into a trap, as they have some advance warning the weapon might be evil or cursed.
    • Could be a way to send the PCs up against a much bigger challenge than they could normally take. The weapon drains life force from it's wielder, so The Dragon that is carrying it has only a fraction of the hit points or willpower they normally would. They'll be excited to have beaten that high level villain, but if very Mechanics Savvy, they'll realize they never should have survived that fight. If they chose to use the darned thing anyway, there's no one to blame but themselves.
• Making a weapon evil can be used as a way to control Power Creep in a game. Yeah, they killed the villain and took his sword of death, but they don't dare use it.
  • If you do this too often, though, the players might feel cheated.
• For additional ideas, see Artifact of Doom.